La Roya

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Note of intent

I spent the first years of my life in a coffee-producing town located in the Andean mountains. Several years went by before I returned to that small town, I was pleased to revisit my past but this was also a rather discouraging experience that, in a way, represents the origin of this story. This project aims to capture the struggle of a rural area that refuses to disappear, as well as with the loss of ancestral customs, reflected in the aggressive arrival a plague that ends-up consuming not only the plants, but the dreams of the people.

Synopsis

Jorge is the only one who decided not to leave his coffee farm. Nobody in town is interested in working as a coffee picker anymore and the few coffee crops not affected by the rust, are in risk of getting ruined in a matter of days. The proximity of the town festival brings along the imminent reunion with his school friends living in the city. During the celebration Jorge faces memories from the past and the yearning for recovering his childhood sweetheart vanishes when he discovers that everything they had in common has faded away, just like his coffee plantation.

Visual concept

“La Roya” seeks to exalt through naturalism and contemplation, characters and environments that represent the metaphor that here arises: life and destruction, warmth and coldness, the countryside and the city as
Natural elements that collide in a certain moment, the ambiguous perception of them, that takes us to the great challenge: to portray through photography, art and acting an almost invisible antagonist, the rust, that not only exists in the coffee plantations but that is mimicked in the mentality of many of the characters.